Select Biographies from the American Mathematical Society

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Select Biographies from the American Mathematical Society

American Mathematical Society Distribution Center 35 Monticello Place, Pawtucket, RI 02861 USA AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY Select Biographies from the American Mathematical Society Lars Ahlfors — At the Summit Peter Lax, Lipman Bers, of Mathematics Mathematician a Life in Olli Lehto, University of Helsinki, Finland An Illustrated Memoir Mathematics Translated by William Hellberg Reuben Hersh, Linda Keen, Lehman University of New Mexico, College, CUNY, New York, This book tells the story of the Finnish- Albuquerque, NM NY, Irwin Kra, Stony American mathematician Lars Ahlfors (1907- Brook University, NY, 1996) and concentrates on his contributions to Reuben Hersh, a former student of Peter Lax, and Rubí E. Rodríguez, the general development of complex analysis. has produced a wonderful account of the life Pontificia Universidad 2015; 125 pages; Softcover; ISBN: 978-1-4704-1846-5; and career of this remarkable man. The book is Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile, Editors List US$39; AMS members US$31.20; Order code well researched and full of interesting facts, yet MBK/92 The book is all about Lipman Bers, a giant in light-hearted and lively. It is very well written. the mathematical world who lived in turbulent A nice feature is the abundance of photographs, and exciting times. It captures the essence of ARNOLD: Swimming Against not only of Peter Lax and his family, but also his mathematics, a development and transi- of colleagues and students. Although written the Tide tion from applied mathematics to complex for mathematicians, the book will have wider analysis–quasiconformal mappings and mod- Boris A. Khesin, University of Toronto, appeal. Highly recommended. uli of Riemann surfaces–and the essence of his Ontario, Canada, and Serge L. —Peter Duren, University of Michigan Tabachnikov, ICERM, Brown University, personality, a progression from a young revo- Providence, RI, and Pennsylvania State A life of Peter Lax, one of the most famous and lutionary refugee to an elder statesman in the University, State College, PA, Editors influential mathematicians of the modern era. world of mathematics and a fighter for global 2015; 253 pages; Softcover; ISBN: 978-1-4704-1708- human rights and the end of political torture. [This book recounts] the work and life of emi- 6; List US$35; AMS members US$28; Order code The book contains autobiographical material nent mathematician Vladimir Arnold. MBK/88 and short reprints of his work. 2014; 224 pages; Softcover; ISBN: 978-1-4704-1699-7; 2015; approximately 340 pages; Softcover; ISBN: 978- List US$29; AMS members US$23.20; Order code 1-4704-2056-7; List US$44; AMS members US$35.20; MBK/86 Order code MBK/93 Order by Phone: facebook.com/amermathsoc Order Online: (800)321-4267 (U.S. & Canada), @amermathsoc www.ams.org/bookstore (401)455-4000 (Worldwide) plus.google.com/+AmsOrg.

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Memories of Prague Lipman Bers
Memories of Prague Lipman Bers Before his death in 1993, Lipman Bers began writ- This back and forth required repeated trolley ing a memoir that eventually grew to about eighty trips between the two offices. At the time I did pages. The memoir, which has never been pub- not know the name of Kafka, Prague’s most fa- lished, covers his early life up to his emigration to mous author, and did not know the meaning of the United States in 1940. What follows is an excerpt “kafkaesque”, but I will never forget the feeling from the chapter about Bers’s life as a student at of complete frustration that I felt after a day of Charles University in Prague, where he received shuttling between the two offices. The most pecu- his doctorate in mathematics in 1938. He arrived liar element in this game was the fact that all the in Prague after fleeing his native Latvia, where he officials were actually intelligent and benevolently was wanted by the secret police for his antigovern- inclined. ment political activities. This excerpt is published on The next morning I remembered having been the occasion of the donation of Bers’s mathematics told that whenever refugees in Prague are in trou- library to Charles University in Prague (see the re- ble, they visit the president of the Czechoslovakian lated article in this issue of the Notices). The Notices senate, Dr. Frantisˇek Soukup. I followed that advice thanks Victor Bers and Ruth Shapiro for permission and was not disappointed. Soukup introduced me to publish this excerpt from the memoir.
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Books for Complex Analysis
Books for complex analysis August 4, 2006 • Complex Analysis, Lars Ahlfors Product Details: ISBN: 0070006571 Format: Hardcover, 336pp Pub. Date: January 1979 Publisher: McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math Edition Description: 3d ed $167.75 (all- time classic, cannot be a complex analyst without it, not easy for beginners) • Functions of One Complex Variable I (Graduate Texts in Mathematics Series #11) John B. Conway Product Details: ISBN: 0387903283 Format: Hardcover, 317pp Pub. Date: January 1978 Publisher: Springer-Verlag New York, LLC Edition Number: 2 $59.95 (another classic book for a complex analysis course) • Theory of Functions Edward Charles Titchmarsh ISBN: 0198533497 Format: Paperback, 464pp Pub. Date: May 1976 Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA Edition Description: REV Edition Number: 2 $98.00 (Chapters 1-8) • Complex Analysis (Princeton Lectures in Analysis Series Vol. II) Elias M. Stein, Rami Shakarchi Product Details: ISBN: 0691113858 Format: Hardcover, 400pp Pub. Date: May 2003 Pub- lisher: Princeton University Press $52.50 (part of a series of books in analysis, modern with nice applications) • Real and Complex Analysis Walter Rudin ISBN: 0070542341 Format: Hardcover, 480pp Pub. Date: May 1986 Publisher: McGraw- Hill Science/Engineering/Math Edition Description: 3rd ed Edition Number: 3 $167.75 (only Chapters 10-16, exercises are hard, written concisely) • Complex Variables and Applications James Ward Brown, Ruel V. Churchill, Product Details: ISBN: 0072872527 Format: Hardcover, 480pp Pub. Date: February 2003 Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies, The Edition Number: 7 $149.75 (mostly undergraduate book, but Appendix 2 is a nice table of conformal mappings) • Elementary Theory of Analytic Functions of One or Several Complex Variables Henri Cartan Product Details: ISBN: 0486685438 Format: Paperback, 228pp Pub.
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A Century of Mathematics in America, Peter Duren Et Ai., (Eds.), Vol
Garrett Birkhoff has had a lifelong connection with Harvard mathematics. He was an infant when his father, the famous mathematician G. D. Birkhoff, joined the Harvard faculty. He has had a long academic career at Harvard: A.B. in 1932, Society of Fellows in 1933-1936, and a faculty appointmentfrom 1936 until his retirement in 1981. His research has ranged widely through alge bra, lattice theory, hydrodynamics, differential equations, scientific computing, and history of mathematics. Among his many publications are books on lattice theory and hydrodynamics, and the pioneering textbook A Survey of Modern Algebra, written jointly with S. Mac Lane. He has served as president ofSIAM and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Mathematics at Harvard, 1836-1944 GARRETT BIRKHOFF O. OUTLINE As my contribution to the history of mathematics in America, I decided to write a connected account of mathematical activity at Harvard from 1836 (Harvard's bicentennial) to the present day. During that time, many mathe maticians at Harvard have tried to respond constructively to the challenges and opportunities confronting them in a rapidly changing world. This essay reviews what might be called the indigenous period, lasting through World War II, during which most members of the Harvard mathe matical faculty had also studied there. Indeed, as will be explained in §§ 1-3 below, mathematical activity at Harvard was dominated by Benjamin Peirce and his students in the first half of this period. Then, from 1890 until around 1920, while our country was becoming a great power economically, basic mathematical research of high quality, mostly in traditional areas of analysis and theoretical celestial mechanics, was carried on by several faculty members.
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Mathematicians Fleeing from Nazi Germany
Mathematicians Fleeing from Nazi Germany Mathematicians Fleeing from Nazi Germany Individual Fates and Global Impact Reinhard Siegmund-Schultze princeton university press princeton and oxford Copyright 2009 © by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Siegmund-Schultze, R. (Reinhard) Mathematicians ﬂeeing from Nazi Germany: individual fates and global impact / Reinhard Siegmund-Schultze. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-691-12593-0 (cloth) — ISBN 978-0-691-14041-4 (pbk.) 1. Mathematicians—Germany—History—20th century. 2. Mathematicians— United States—History—20th century. 3. Mathematicians—Germany—Biography. 4. Mathematicians—United States—Biography. 5. World War, 1939–1945— Refuges—Germany. 6. Germany—Emigration and immigration—History—1933–1945. 7. Germans—United States—History—20th century. 8. Immigrants—United States—History—20th century. 9. Mathematics—Germany—History—20th century. 10. Mathematics—United States—History—20th century. I. Title. QA27.G4S53 2008 510.09'04—dc22 2008048855 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available This book has been composed in Sabon Printed on acid-free paper. ∞ press.princeton.edu Printed in the United States of America 10 987654321 Contents List of Figures and Tables xiii Preface xvii Chapter 1 The Terms “German-Speaking Mathematician,” “Forced,” and“Voluntary Emigration” 1 Chapter 2 The Notion of “Mathematician” Plus Quantitative Figures on Persecution 13 Chapter 3 Early Emigration 30 3.1. The Push-Factor 32 3.2. The Pull-Factor 36 3.D.
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The Top Mathematics Award
Fields told me and which I later verified in Sweden, namely, that Nobel hated the mathematician Mittag- Leffler and that mathematics would not be one of the do- mains in which the Nobel prizes would The Top Mathematics be available." Award Whatever the reason, Nobel had lit- tle esteem for mathematics. He was Florin Diacuy a practical man who ignored basic re- search. He never understood its impor- tance and long term consequences. But Fields did, and he meant to do his best John Charles Fields to promote it. Fields was born in Hamilton, Ontario in 1863. At the age of 21, he graduated from the University of Toronto Fields Medal with a B.A. in mathematics. Three years later, he fin- ished his Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University and was then There is no Nobel Prize for mathematics. Its top award, appointed professor at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania, the Fields Medal, bears the name of a Canadian. where he taught from 1889 to 1892. But soon his dream In 1896, the Swedish inventor Al- of pursuing research faded away. North America was not fred Nobel died rich and famous. His ready to fund novel ideas in science. Then, an opportunity will provided for the establishment of to leave for Europe arose. a prize fund. Starting in 1901 the For the next 10 years, Fields studied in Paris and Berlin annual interest was awarded yearly with some of the best mathematicians of his time. Af- for the most important contributions ter feeling accomplished, he returned home|his country to physics, chemistry, physiology or needed him.
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18.783 Elliptic Curves Lecture Note 17
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Calculus Redux
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Public Recognition and Media Coverage of Mathematical Achievements
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics Volume 9 | Issue 2 July 2019 Public Recognition and Media Coverage of Mathematical Achievements Juan Matías Sepulcre University of Alicante Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.claremont.edu/jhm Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons, and the Mathematics Commons Recommended Citation Sepulcre, J. "Public Recognition and Media Coverage of Mathematical Achievements," Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, Volume 9 Issue 2 (July 2019), pages 93-129. DOI: 10.5642/ jhummath.201902.08 . Available at: https://scholarship.claremont.edu/jhm/vol9/iss2/8 ©2019 by the authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. JHM is an open access bi-annual journal sponsored by the Claremont Center for the Mathematical Sciences and published by the Claremont Colleges Library | ISSN 2159-8118 | http://scholarship.claremont.edu/jhm/ The editorial staff of JHM works hard to make sure the scholarship disseminated in JHM is accurate and upholds professional ethical guidelines. However the views and opinions expressed in each published manuscript belong exclusively to the individual contributor(s). The publisher and the editors do not endorse or accept responsibility for them. See https://scholarship.claremont.edu/jhm/policies.html for more information. Public Recognition and Media Coverage of Mathematical Achievements Juan Matías Sepulcre Department of Mathematics, University of Alicante, Alicante, SPAIN [email protected] Synopsis This report aims to convince readers that there are clear indications that society is increasingly taking a greater interest in science and particularly in mathemat- ics, and thus society in general has come to recognise, through diﬀerent awards, privileges, and distinctions, the work of many mathematicians.
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AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY Notices
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Commentary: Three Decades After Cathleen Synge Morawetz's Paper “The Mathematical Approach to the Sonic Barrier”
BULLETIN (New Series) OF THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY Volume 55, Number 3, July 2018, Pages 347–350 http://dx.doi.org/10.1090/bull/1620 Article electronically published on April 19, 2018 COMMENTARY: THREE DECADES AFTER CATHLEEN SYNGE MORAWETZ’S PAPER “THE MATHEMATICAL APPROACH TO THE SONIC BARRIER” IRENE M. GAMBA Abstract. Immediately following the commentary below, this previously pub- lished article is reprinted in its entirety: Cathleen Synge Morawetz, “The mathematical approach to the sonic barrier”, Bull.Amer.Math.Soc.(N.S.) 6 (1982), no. 2, 127–145. Cathleen Synge Morawetz wrote this article in connection with The Josiah Willard Gibbs lecture she presented at the American Mathematical Society meeting in San Francisco, California, January 7, 1981. This is a beautiful piece on a subject at the core of applied mathematical analysis and numerical methods motivated by the pressing engineering technology of the mid-twentieth century and the human urge to travel fast at efficient cost. From the mathematical viewpoint this problem comprises the understanding of models of nonlinear partial differential equations arising in compressible fluid mechanics, as much as understanding how to obtain numerical approximations to a model discretization that result both in finding nu- merically computed surfaces close to the model’s solutions (if such exists) but also in matching these computed model outputs to experiments from engineering or experimental observation viewpoints. This commentary starts with a description of the state-of-the-art up to 1982, from a very comprehensive explanation for any scientist of what it takes to fly an object with wings and the issues of instabilities that arise as we try to fly too fast, to the description of the adequate model given by the system of Hamilton–Jacobi framework of conservation of mass and momentum for a compressible potential isentropic inviscid fluid, formulated by the coupled nonlinear system of conservation of mass to the Bernoulli law associated to such a fluid model.
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Jürgen K. Moser 1928–1999
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Bibliography Phillip A. Griffiths Books
Bibliography Phillip A. Griffiths Books (with J. Adams) Topics in algebraic and analytic geometry. Princeton University Press, 1974, vi+219 pp. Entire holomorphic mappings in one and several complex variables. Princeton University Press, 1976, x+99 pp. (with J. Harris) Principles of algebraic geometry. Pure and Applied Mathematics. John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1978, xii+813 pp. An introduction to the theory of special divisors on algebraic curves. CBMS Regional Conference Series in Mathematics, 44. American Mathematical Society, Providence, R.I., 1980, v+25 pp. (with J. Morgan) Rational homotopy theory and differential forms. Progress in Mathematics, 16. Birkhäuser, Boston, Mass., 1981, xi+242 pp. (with E. Arbarello, M. Cornalba and J. Harris) Geometry of algebraic curves. Vol. I. Grundlehren der Mathematischen Wissenschaften [Fundamental Principles of Mathematical Science], 267. Springer-Verlag, New York-Berlin, 1985, xvi+386 pp. (with G. Jensen) Differential systems and isometric embeddings. Annals of Mathematics Studies, 114. The William H. Roever Lectures in Geometry. Princeton University Press, 1987, xii+226 pp. Introduction to algebraic curves. Translated from the Chinese by Kuniko Weltin. Translations of Mathematical Monographs, 76. American Mathematical Society, Providence, RI, 1989, x+221 pp. (with R. Bryant, S.S. Chern, R Gardner, H. Goldschmidt) Exterior differential systems. Mathematical Sciences Research Institute Publications, 18. Springer-Verlag, New York, 1991, viii+475 pp. (with R. Bryant and D. Grossman) Exterior differential systems and Euler-Lagrange partial differential equations. University of Chicago Press, 2003, vii+213 pp. (with M. Green) On the tangent space to the space of algebraic cycles on a smooth algebraic variety (Annals of Math Studies, 157.
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